China, at last!

We’re here at last! To all of our friends and family who have been with us on this adoption journey we thank you!

We had the BEST flying experience we have ever had, and don’t EVER let anyone tell you that it is not worth it to fly First Class because wowza! They treated us like gold! Our seats reclined back into beds and we slept like babies the whole way over sipping on mimosas and listening to our Ipods (boy are our lives going to change real fast!) We were on the new airbust A300 plane, and get this! They even had lumbar massages for your back (kind of like those chairs at the nail salons girls!)…I think I am forever ruined now for good old fashioned coach traveling (hee hee). Truly though we felt God’s favor upon us through the entire journey to China, and we had to hold back tears everytime somebody would come up to us (for no apparent reason) and just be there to help us or to point the way for something good that we should see or do. It was like we had a private escort in the heavens leading us to China! We felt all of your prayers every step of the miraculous journey, and we are still feeling them. Oh and before I forget to tell you, the pilots of our plane invited Dan and I into their cockpit for a private “hang out” (and they insisted that we both get in their “pilot seats” for a photo to someday share with Chaeli! How cool was that?!

Of course we couldn’t refuse! We were the only ones they invited up like that too, and we still can’t figure out why they were so nice to us. All of our flight crew were amazing and kept giving us kuddos for adopting this baby from China. We passed Chaeli’s picture all around the plane. One lady even cried with me while we talked about it. We felt so much support the whole way over….and let me tell you that the sun in Tokyo is like nothing you have ever seen before! There is a reason why they call it the land of the rising sun. We were in awe of how BIG and how orangey/red the Sun was on this side of the world. I mean it when I say it literally took our breath away.

We are in our hotel room right now…the moment I walked into our room and I saw the crib I got choked up. That keeps happening to me as I unpack Chaeli’s doll like clothes and toys, realizing that in a few short hours she will be here to play with these things. How will I ever sleep? My precious baby is coming home to my arms!

The White Swan Hotel is amazing and has already earned its reputation of being a 5 star hotel in our eyes! We love it here and the Chinese people are sooooo beautiful and gracious! We will have no problem camping out here for the next 2 weeks and making a temporary home with Chaeli. It was 70 degrees here today so tomorrow should be pretty nice too. Well Dan is snoring so loud that you can all probably hear him back home! Time for me to go crawl into the bed. I love and miss you all (and of course will write tomorrow when we have our little Chaeli Bug in our arms!) Please pray for her to bond with us and not be so afraid b/c her entire world is going to change tomorrow and it can be very hard on the babies.

Hugs,

Sheila.
xoxoxo

P.S. Check out the puffy eyed picture of me and my little sister Laura right before we walked into the airport. Laura is adopting from Vietnam right now and is waiting for her referral as well. Adoption is something that her and I are connected to on a very deep level. I miss you already Laura and everytime I do something I think I want to turn and talk to you about it but you are not here. I pray you will feel close to me through these emails, so that we will not really have to be apart.

Boys Mommy loves you and Daddy won’t stop talking about how much he loves and misses his boys! Pray for your sister who is coming home to you very soon!